Home STRETCH ‘Carrot and stick’
Schools devise strategies to keep seniors engaged through graduation day
High school seniors feeling burned out is a common problem. Senior slump or senioritis — a lack of motivation — can develop even as graduation comes closer into view.
“It’s absolutely still a thing. We try to figure out how to address it,” says Debi Kierst, Sandia Prep’s director of special academic programs, senior class sponsor and member of the theater department. “It’s hard to keep them engaged. Sitting in English class everyday just doesn’t seem that important. And I really don’t blame them. The kids are tired. We try to keep them excited and engaged.”
At Amy Biehl High School, Matt Kraus, director of college engagement for the Downtown charter school, says it keeps him awake at night, “That’s what I wake up thinking — how do I keep our seniors motivated?”
Many seniors, most 17 and 18, are making adult life-changing decisions for the first time about college or whatever comes next after high school and it can be overwhelming, he says.
“Oh it’s real all right,” says Angelica Delgadillo, a college and career readiness counselor at Valley High School. “I think students check out spring semester when they get back from Christmas break. That’s when I see them burn out and just want to be done with high school.”
And it has unfortunate consequences if students and their adults don’t deal with it successfully.
“We definitely have that problem. It seems senioritis kicks in earlier each year for almost every student,” says Debra Chandler, a college and career readiness counselor at La Cueva High School.
Chandler says even students who excel academically may let their grades slide, a real hazard for those who have been accepted into college.
“The colleges have a right to revoke their offer of admission if students don’t continue to meet their requirements.” Rafael Figueroa, dean of college guidance at the Albuquerque Academy, says he has several “carrot and stick” approaches to keep seniors motivated.
The big stick is that college acceptance and scholarships are “contingent upon successful completion of the academic senior year.”
He feels for the students. “They are absolutely burned out from working so hard.”
But Figueroa, along with other area counselors, says the real way for seniors to cope with exhaustion and lack of motivation is to follow their hearts and learn what passions motivate them.
He says he has at least two “carrots.”
One carrot is considering a gap-year. He says most colleges will hold a place for a year for students if they meet their requirements.
“Maybe they take the year and travel. Studies show they do better in college if they reset and de-stress,” he says. The gap year allows them to hone their particular interest and figure out what they want to do, so they arrive at college more focused.
Another carrot is a four-week independent project that allows seniors to follow their interests off-campus beginning in midApril. It culminates with a presentation.
“It can be anything,” Figueroa explains.
‘Almost done’
For Academy senior Khushi Singh her senior project is a way into her music.
Singh, a singer-songwriter and violinist, organized a handful of musicians into a songwriting workshop. She and the others will meet four hours a day for four weeks. She will present the music they create at the end and post it on the internet at SoundCloud.
“Music is in every part of my life. It’s my safe space. It grounds me. If I’m sad, I play music. If I’m frustrated, I play violin or I sing,” Singh says. “Music is all mine. There are no expectations on it. It’s all for me.”
Music and the support of counselors like Figueroa, teachers, friends and family have helped her cope with high school.
“I love Academy, but it’s hard to understand just how difficult and anxiety-inducing Academy can be. It’s competitive 100 percent. You have to work a lot harder to stay near the top,” she says. “I haven’t had a decent amount of sleep since freshman year.”
Getting to her senior project is a relief. “Getting here is freeing for me, because I’m almost done.”
She advises students approaching senior year to shore up their friendships with people who are positive and to lean on their adults both at home and in school.
“Find something you’re doing because you love it and not just because somebody wants you to or because there is an expectation placed on you. It can free you, because you will have those moments of just doing the thing you love.”
The next stage
At Amy Biehl, a college preparatory school, Kraus says senior year is designed to beat senior slump and keep kids motivated. Seniors must enroll in dual-credit classes, where they earn college and high school credit concurrently and complete a service-learning project.
“Our mission here is civic engagement and college readiness. I’m always looking for a healthy way to help them move to the next stage,” he says.
But still, seniors are itchy to move on.
No one knows better than senior Samuel Mackey, who completed Central New Mexico Community College’s emergency medical technician program and has his EMT license as part of his dualcredit course requirement.
He’s been offered a position as an EMT in Tennessee.
“To accomplish this task and take the job offer, I need my diploma and that’s why I keep trudging along. I am burned out from schooling. I keep remembering the end is very near.”
His senior service project is volunteering with the Tijeras Fire Department.
“I have been working with that crew for a year now, I have run many calls with them and they have shown me that firefighting and being a medical provider is my true passion.”
Another Amy Biehl senior Emily Jackson says her volunteer work in the Child Life Program at Presbyterian Hospital keeps her on track.
She wants to be a pediatric nurse and has racked up 34 college credit hours in high school. Her best days are cuddling babies in the neonatal intensive care.
“I used to laugh and say senioritis wasn’t real, but now I know it is,” she says. “I am ready for high school to end. I am ready to start this new chapter of my life. I have this feeling though — I am going to miss it tremendously.”
Another Amy Biehl senior is also working in the medical field. Mystique Lamb works in orthopedic biomaterials and biomechanics at the University of New Mexico Hospital. She’s been accepted to UNM. “The biggest thing to avoid is feeling like you are already done. We call it senioritis. To keep my motivation I have been working on my mindset and time management the most.”
Something new
At Sandia Prep, Kierst says she encourages students to try something new to ease burnout. One senior took up acting and is a lead in the school play.
Others find new inspiration through independent study.
Senior Epherem Zerai studies how the brain acquires language and how that differs from learning to play an instrument for his Senior Capstone project. He has shadowed and interviewed physicians as part of his project. “This project helps me stay motivated. It keeps my interest alive.”
But motivation hasn’t really been a problem for Zerai, who with his parents and brother immigrated to the United States from Ethiopia.
“My motivation has always been all the sacrifices my parents and grandparents have made to get here to the United States for a better education. I see how hard my parents work everyday to make sure I have opportunities. I don’t take that for granted.”